ミルクマン

by Stephen King, スティーヴン・キング, 矢野 浩三郎 (翻訳)

朝もやのなか、どこからともなく不思議な牛乳配達がやってくる。配達するのは青酸カリやベラドンナ入りの牛乳だ。幻想的なショート・ストーリーの表題作。
近道探し、抜け道探しに熱中するトッド夫人はついに地図上の直線距離より短い道を発見した！ーしかしそれは木々が怪しくざわめき見たこともない動物がひそむ異世界だったー「トッド夫人の近道」
過去を回想しながら死んでいく老婦人ステラのまえにあらわれ、彼女を優しく死後の世界へと誘う死者たちの美しい幻想「入り江」
秋のだれもいない保養地の湖で大学生たちをひとり、またひとりと襲う怪物の静かな恐怖「浮き台」
ヒッチハイク中の青年の目の前にあらわれ、彼を殺人へと駆り立てる謎の女「ノーナ」
など、モダン・ホラーの王者キングが独自の幻想世界を妖しく描いた傑作短編集。

• ミルクマン1（早朝配達） - Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)（1985）訳:矢野浩三郎
• ミルクマン2（ランドリー・ゲーム）- Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)（1982）訳:矢野浩三郎
• トッド夫人の近道 - Mrs. Todd's Shortcut（1984）訳:山本光伸
• 浮き台 - The Raft（1982）訳:田村源二
• ノーナ - Nona（1978）訳:田村源二
• ビーチワールド - Beachworld（1984）訳:山本光伸
• オーエンくんへ - For Owen（1985）訳:矢野浩三郎
• 生きのびるやつ - Survivor Type（1982）訳:田村源二
• おばあちゃん - Gramma（1984）訳:山本光伸
• 入り江 - The Reach（1981）訳:山本光伸
• 原作者のノート　訳:矢野浩三郎

402 pages, Paperback

Published May 19, 1988

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.